This play was
lost in
1967,
banished to the
nether regions of
Andy Warhol's
New York studio,
the Factory. It was
found again quite some years later under some
lighting equipment in a silver
trunk belonging to
Billy Name. The
Andy Warhol Museum has (or had) it on
display. Several people now own copies. I am not one of them,
damn it all.
Excerpt from the
dedication:
"I dedicate this play to
Me;
a continuous source of
strength and
guidance, and without whose
unflinching loyalty,
devotion and
faith, this play could never have been written.
Additional acknowledgements:
Myself-
For
proofreading,
editorial comment,
helpful hints,
criticism and
suggestions and an
exquisite job of typing.
I -
for
Independent research into men, married women and other
degenerates."
This play has been staged
once ever.
George Coates, a
San Francisco based
director of plays, aquired the rights to have it performed. It ran for six months (November '99 thru April '00) in
Performance Works at San Francisco's
Civic Center and
I missed it! What the hell is wrong with me? >8/
Anyway,
I've read some reviews. And the basic
gist of Up Your Ass seems to be something like this:
The main character is
Bongi Perez. She is a
hustler and a
panhandler. She is also a
lesbian. Bongi Perez says: "I'm so female, I'm
subversive."
She
loiters around the street,
making money, cruising
broads ("lowdown, funky broads"), and generally spouting
witticisms and
pontificating on the
pitfalls of an
American male dominated society. She encounters various
characters as she goes about her day. One such character is
Ginger who catches Bongi's eye as she's searching around the sidewalk for a misplaced
turd she needs for a
dinner party that she's hosting for two male friends later. Bongi asks Ginger if she's going to serve her guests the turd. Ginger replies, "You're
impossible! I assure you I have no intention, whatsoever, of serving my guests a turd. The turd's for me.
Everybody knows that men have much more respect for women who are good at lapping up
shit." Another character is
Mrs. Arthur Hazlitt, a
housewife who ends up strangling her child with his
super glue erection(I
shudder to think). These are only two in what seems to be a whole
plethora of personalities who have
exchanges of one sort or another with Bongi. One gets the impression that, as the play progresses, Bongi is able to enlighten these
sorry women and inspire them to
emancipate themselves from the
submissive roles that their society has assigned them and they have so eweishly accepted. (is eweish a word?)
So that's generally it. Again, I didn't see it so I can't give a definite and complete synopsis.
Alternate titles for Up Your Ass were
From the Cradle to the Boat,
The Big Suck and
Up From the Slime
who needs
class when you've got
groovy intellect?